Readers' comments

So much for Russia's opposition. Yevgenia Chirikova reportedly won only 17% of the vote against the United Russia favoured Oleg Shakhov who got 48%. Indeed, United Russia won all five governor contests and will dominate all six regional legislatures contested in this election.
Russian opposition movement is at best limited to Moscow, while in regions its significance is zero. The opposition has a long way to go before it could challenge Putin's United Russia.

You are right but don't forget to underline the very low participation to these elections - from 25% - and also the fact that these elections are unfair meaning that they have a lot of irregularities - not to underline the fact that all the medias are controlled by Putin's Mafia FSB state.

Only 20% of Russians are democrat - or at least understand the need for Russia to have a democratic state - free of corruption, transparent, with free medias, respect of laws and of treaties ( human rights, etc) and part of European countries.

Except that 80% of Russians have a slave mentality : they love their present dictatorship - their FSB Mafia state, they love the corruption... and their pensions paid by the prices of oil. They are the heirs of a strange specie : imperialist slaves.

Russian culture and history is for the last three centuries the ones of lovers of dictators. The essence is the Russian Chauvinism. A great book about it "A concise history of the Russian Revolution" by Richard Pipes - 1995 - Vintage Books - Random House.

Look what happens now with the use of Russian Orthodoxy as a State Ideology - it has always been of course but now it's the only one. Russian Orthodoxy has always been a backward Christian ideology at the service of the crimes of Russian dictators. Its essence is to maintain Russian culture in a primitive state.

As European, as German, I believe that this present Russia is our enemy. And as enemy, we need to destroy this political system. I am totally convinced that step by step it will become the main goal of European Foreign policy: it could take one or ten years but it will happen.

The sure way to destroy it is simple: to apply a strategy of containment which has been so successful in the past. It means to create a strong Europe with Turkey and Ukraine at ones of the main countries, to have a strategic alliance and partnership with China and Asian countries, to help all the separatism inside the Russian Federation - the Tartars, the Caucasus people, etc. To seize the assets of the Russian elites ( friends of Putin's FSB relatives and allies) in the West and to forbide them to stay in such countries as Swiss, England, Canada, USA, etc.

Step by step this strategy is taking place and the result is to break this 111 millions Ethnic Russians in a way that Ukraine could manage them in the West and the Chinese in the East. To end once for all the Russian Chauvinism - this Imperialism of the XIXth century.

The Russian opposition is weak because part of this opposition is still under the influence of this Russian Chauvinist culture - Navalny is a good example of that.

The only country able to manage these Russians are the Ukrainians - because the Ukrainians are at the origin of the Russian culture, because they are civilized, because they have proved that they could fight for fair elections, for a democratic system, because they are an essential part of Europe.

It is possible that we could fail to do that in the next few years but in the next decades I have no doubt at all - simply because the weigh of the World will be with group of countries we will be able to have at least 500 millions citizens, better one billion or more.

Then Russia step by step will appear to be smaller and smaller and less significant as it is already today.

In case you haven't noticed the five governor contests and six regional legislatures' elections were nowhere close to Moscow.
As to your infantile comment to Walter, let me remind you that Moscow did not even exist as a settlement when Kyiv was the center of political and cultural progress in Eastern Europe. They used horses at that time, not camels. And it was the Kyivan Grand Dukes who brought Christianity to the pagan tribal inhabitants of the ill-defined northern regions who eventually took to calling themselves Muscovites. That was before their self-proclaimed Dukes of Muscovy started paying annual ransom to the Mongolian Khans, in part in gold and in part by offering their young female servants. The Mongols were grateful, no doubt.

Talking about lack of popularity, you need to take seriously an unfriendly decision by North Korea's young Leader in ordering a removal of the portraits of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin from the main square of Pyongyang. The portraits of Marx and Lenin, along with the image of the North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, had been decorating the building of North Korea's Ministry for Foreign Trade for decades. It looks like an obvious anti-Moscow gesture and represents a challenge to Putin and his United Russia. Will Kremlin issue an ultimatum requiring the North Koreans to replace the two portraits with just ONE huge bronze statue of Vladimir Putin ?

> As to your infantile comment to Walter, let me remind you that Moscow did not even exist as a settlement when Kyiv was the center of political and cultural progress in Eastern Europe. They used horses at that time, not camels. And it was the Kyivan Grand Dukes who brought Christianity to the pagan tribal inhabitants of the ill-defined northern regions who eventually took to calling themselves Muscovites.

You forgot to mention, what Kiev was a capital of Russia (or, more correct, Kievan Rus').
This state is absolutely unrelated to modern Ukraine.
Attributes of modern ukrainian "sovereignity" are mostly originated in XIX century.
And, yes: inhabitans of Kievan Rus' never spoke ukrainian. ))

> That was before their self-proclaimed Dukes of Muscovy started paying annual ransom to the Mongolian Khans, in part in gold and in part by offering their young female servants. The Mongols were grateful, no doubt.

I see nothing bad about this. After all, Great empire of Mongols was one of the most civilised countries of its time. Definitely, more civilised, than Europe (I neved heard about witches burned in Mongolia...)

"You forgot to mention, what Kiev was a capital of Russia (or, more correct, Kievan Rus').
This state is absolutely unrelated to modern Ukraine."
NO, Kyiv was never a capital of RUSSIA. You are hallucinating.
Get medical help !
You need to read some basic course on the Kyivan state, on the Riuryk dynasty and so on.
The present Russia is 'absolutely unrelated' to the Kyivan state. The present Germany is 'absolutely unrelated' to the Roman Empire. The present Turkey is 'absolutely unrelated' to the Ottoman Empire. Calling Mongols " one of the most civilised countries of its time" tells us all about your 'knowledge of history'. No need to waste any time with that kind of ignorance.

The proper term was Kievan RUS', not Kyivan UKR, get over it buddy. Kiev was the capital of RUS. Today Kiev happens to be the capital of Ukraine. Ukraine was never a state until 1917, for a short period of time, and then again in 1992. Learn history from other than Ukrainian sources, buddy Dido.

Didomyk, you said, “The opposition has a long way to go before it could challenge Putin's United Russia.” I would paraphrase your deep thought. Putin has a long way to go before he could be challenged by opposition.

> You need to read some basic course on the Kyivan state, on the Riuryk dynasty and so on.

So, you admit, what Ryurik dynasty originated from Kievan state?
Good.
Can I remind you what all czars of Moscow -- until Ivan IV "the Terrible" -- also were descendants of the same dynasty? :))

> Calling Mongols " one of the most civilised countries of its time" tells us all about your 'knowledge of history'.

What is wrong with my statement?
The Great Mongolian Empire was not one of the mightiest states of its time -- but one of the most civilised, too. For example, it had incredible high level of religious tolerance.

Guillaume de Rubrouck -- hope, this name means something to you??
After visiting the Karakorum (the capital of Great Mongol Empire) in 1253 -- Rubrouck admits, what he was mostly impressed by degree of religious freedom he witnessed. Buddhist temples, mosques, christian churches -- peacefully existed side by side! This picture was absolutely impossible in dark fanatical Europe (where christians continued to kill other christians for nearly 500 years afterwards...)

As Walter correctly stated in his post:
" 80% of Russians have a slave mentality : they love their present dictatorship - their FSB Mafia state, they love the corruption... and their pensions paid by the prices of oil. They are the heirs of a strange species: imperialist slaves."

Its not just 80% of the Russians, but including brainwashed, confused, half-baked Russia's "patriots" like the ex-Comsomol trainee Joe the Brainwashed Reader.

Indeed, the essence of Joe's Comsomol training was Russian Chauvinism. And it remains Russian Chauvinism even after Joe has been ordered to relocate to the USA and assigned new propaganda duties under supervision of his new resident Commissar-Paymaster with HQ at Brighton Beach, NY.

1)Did you forget to take your dose of haloperidol ???
2)Don't be shy ,just call for the extermination of those savages ! Slavic Holocaust a wet dream of Glorious Nazi Germany .Come on boy ,make your grandfather (and Adolf) proud !!!
3) I bet May 9th is a day of mourning for you .

Sorry buddy Dido, I'm not familiar with those parties mentioned by you. As a matter of fact, I'm not affiliated with any political party at all, it keeps my life simple and without much unnecessary political emotions.

"...he is Trotsky's blood relative." ----- Care to elaborate further on this interesting assertion?

Sweet Jesus, what's up with this milquetoast writing style? You read "Strelchenko faced allegations that his office was linked to several horrific beatings of local journalists who opposed the plan", and you would not know that Strelchenko himself is accused of ordering a hit on a journalist, Mikhail Beketov, who has sustained horrible injuries. Or consider "Favoured candidates also enjoy administrative resources and fawning coverage on state-run media". How about "Favoured candidates have forged ballots with their names on them stuffed into ballot boxes by hired people, or directly be election committee members - unless they take it easy and just falsify the count"? Why not visit Navalny's website and see a YouTube video which shows just that?

(Ms) Kristina Potupchik is the press secretary of Putin's youth organization, who has supervised a network of paid online commenters - revealed when her Gmail account got hacked - rewarding the best employees with free iPads and MacBooks, courtesy of the Russian taxpayer. I thought you were from Potupchik's brigade. If not, I'd like to go back to your original comment and ask to explain the "I'm not worried for Khimki any more" bit.

> (Ms) Kristina Potupchik is the press secretary of Putin's youth organization, who has supervised a network of paid online commenters - revealed when her Gmail account got hacked - rewarding the best employees with free iPads and MacBooks, courtesy of the Russian taxpayer.

Oh, thank. Heard something about this story.

> I thought you were from Potupchik's brigade.

You were wrong.

> If not, I'd like to go back to your original comment and ask to explain the "I'm not worried for Khimki any more" bit.

Because I don't trust populist demagogues -- I don't want Chirikova to be the mayor of town with 200,000 population.
So, I'm glad she isn't going to be one.
Hope this makes my point clear.

Well, I have to ask (a) why you are calling Chirikova a "populist demagogue", and (b) whether you prefer embezzlers and kick-back artists, because that's what Mr. Shakhov is. (His tenure in charge of road construction - the epitome of graft in Russia - is an immediate red flag, and then you have Navalny's investigation of his recent shenanigans, a peculiar local type of vote fraud). Commenting without knowing these things - and quoting the fraudulent official vote counts - risks making oneself look like a useful idiot for Ms. Potupchik and her bosses. You don't even get an iPad...